Vidcoder's scaling option (what exactly does it do?)/Getting eyes to "pop"?

[strawberryshortcake]

Question: What exactly does vidcoder's scaling option do (upscale 2x, upscale 3x, upscale 4x)? Does it help sharpen the video? Another program Avidemux does seem to have a legitimate sharpen filter that seems to work well, but without using "scripts" or whatever they're called, I can only process one file at a time.

I've already reencoded the same file using all the options (downscale only, upscale 2x max, upscale 3x max, upscale 4x max), leaving everything else the same. Resolution the same, size of the video file (220mb) the same, etc. and the videos looks basically the same. Maybe it's psychological trying to see if there is a difference with those difference options.

Basically, I just want to know if there is in fact something that does change when selecting the different upscale options in vidcoder.

Desired effect wanted: to sharpen the character's eyes, increase the definition so the eyes "pop." When watching videos on my ipad, sometimes the eyes of the actors are blurry especially on the larger 12.9 ipad pro and particularly the files that I encoded in the past using any video converter. Vidcoder massively improved the "sharpness/pop" to the actors eyes. I had a maximum 256gb capacity on the ipad retina 4 so I had to compromise when I only knew about any video converter. But now with the expanded 512gb on the ipad pro 12.9 and with vidcoder giving me much better quality with a smaller file size, I can now fit more videos with better quality, and simply looks better on the 12.9 ipad pro.

Just found out about vidcoder about a week ago. Wanted to re-encode my DVD TV sitcoms for Ipad Pro 12.9 portability. I already ripped them to VOB formats using DVD shrink. Smaller file and better quality achieved with Vidcoder compared to using any video converter (my once go to converter). If I can increase the quality while stashing more of my DVDs/Blu-Ray onto my ipad, reencoding everything would be worth it.